


ceiling

by astronomyfortwo



Category: bottled up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 18:27:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21104003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astronomyfortwo/pseuds/astronomyfortwo
Summary: several days after the incident. clem is in the hospital room. jonquil comes in.





	ceiling

she is staring at the ceiling. 

he pulls up a chair – he sits.  
he pulls off his glasses – he rests them atop his head.   
he pulls her hand towards him – from where it lay on the plain bed, into his own hands. 

he looks down at her hand. he rubs his thumb across her palm. 

he is trying to comfort her. 

she is staring at the ceiling. 

clem, he says,   
and before he can speak again;  
i know, she replies,  
tears growing in her eyes. 

she is staring at the ceiling. 

‘we both know this won’t work out’ —   
is left unsaid, the room too heavy with dread  
to even whisper what he came here for. 

she is staring at the ceiling. 

is this how it has to end? he asks  
himself out loud   
and she just says   
better now than later —  
better now than yet more painful.

she is staring at the ceiling. 

he knows it doesn’t have to be this way.   
he knows it’s in his hands.  
he knows that if he got his act together,  
stitched his wayward heart together,  
they could still be one together.

her hand is still in his.   
she does not care to keep it there;  
cares less to take it away. 

he is clasping her hand tighter. 

she is staring at the ceiling. 

his eyes, too often red from recreation   
have taken on a different toll.   
he is staring at her hand,   
her hand in his.   
it is becoming harder to stare. 

tears fall onto her hand. 

she is staring at the ceiling. 

he pulls his hands away.  
he wipes his tears away.   
he turns his eyes away.   
he moves the chair away. 

she is staring at the ceiling. 

he is holding his glasses instead of her hand.   
he is rubbing his thumb along the lens. 

he is thinking of everything that went wrong. 

he is clasping the glasses tighter. 

he is thinking of every tiny action that could have prevented this. 

he is clasping the glasses tighter. 

he is thinking of how he could have saved her.   
he is thinking of how he could have saved them. 

he is breaking the glasses. 

she is staring at the ceiling. 

the bridge snaps in half,   
cheap plastic cutting into his palm.   
it is bleeding.   
he does not care.  
he drops the remnants.   
they clatter to the floor. 

he is staring at the glasses. 

she is staring at the ceiling. 

he is trying not to sob. 

she is staring at the ceiling. 

he is staring at the blood on his hands.

she is staring at the ceiling. 

he is doubled over. eyes bleary. 

she is staring at the ceiling. 

he falls to his knees.  
he is covering his mouth. 

she is staring at the ceiling.

he falls to his haunches.   
he is covering a sound.

she is staring at the ceiling.

he falls to his back.   
he is covering a sob. 

she is crying.

he is staring at the ceiling.

they are sobbing. 

they are staring at the ceiling.


End file.
